Arts and Entertainment

Bill Clinton was president, Thomas Menino was in only his second year as mayor of Boston, and Bill Belichick was soon to begin the last season of an unremarkable tenure as head coach of the Cleveland Browns on the day in 1995 when Boston-area musician and... Read more

The plays and films of Martin McDonagh could hardly be called light entertainment. From “Lonesome West” and “The Lieutenant of Inishmore” to “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” “The Pillowman,” “In Bruges” and “Seven Psychopaths,” the Irish writer often... Read more

Doyle’s Café is a Boston institution – and more to the point, a Boston Irish institution, as anyone who has seen its Irish and Irish-American memorabilia and décor can testify. So there aren’t many more appropriate venues around for a good old-fashioned... Read more

Rockin’ Road to Dublin’
The era of Irish dance-themed stage productions, which has seen “Riverdance,” “Lord of the Dance,” “Dancing on Dangerous Ground,” and “Atlantic Steps,” among others, is not over yet: Now there’s “Rockin’ Road to Dublin,” which... Read more

The Barra MacNeils, who will perform at Medford’s Chevalier Theater on March 7, have forged a hugely successful career of nearly three decades playing Celtic music, including that of their native Cape Breton.
Legendary Celtic music performers The Barra... Read more

If you’re among the thousands of theatergoers who attend performances each season at Lyric Stage Company of Boston, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Nora Conley, who is both Box Office Manager and Front of House Manager at the theater. Due to the... Read more

The Press Gang (L-R, Alden Robinson, Chris Stevens and Owen Marshall) performing at last fall’s Dorchester Irish Heritage Festival. Sean Smith photo
If you were a fellow in the prime of life back about, oh, a couple of hundred years or so in the British... Read more

Ronan Noone
To find yourself preparing for the world premiere of a play you’ve written is a major undertaking. To find yourself preparing simultaneously for the world premiere of two plays you’ve written is pretty much unheard of.
Yet that’s where... Read more

The Irish music community in Boston, and well beyond, joined in grieving the death late last year of Sean Gannon, a member of one of the area’s most well-loved musical families.
Gannon, a Dorchester native, died on Nov. 26 at the age of 46. He was the son... Read more

Tin whistle players performed a medley as part of the Trad Youth Exchange concert.
There was absolutely no space in The Burren Backroom, certainly not on the stage: Twenty children in two rows occupied most of the platform, and a third row of eight sat... Read more

In Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol,” miserly Ebenezer Scrooge forsakes capitalism to discover the true spirit of Christmas after crossing paths with Ghosts Past, Present, and Future. Since it was published in 1843, the story has stood as a holiday... Read more

Back for its 12th year, “A Christmas Celtic Sojourn” will once again turn to new faces and sounds as well as familiar favorites in celebrating the Christmas holiday season through music, song, dance, and storytelling from Irish, Scottish, and other,... Read more

Frustration can lead to anger and despair – but also, sometimes, a potentially good idea like TradLife, a newly launched website that champions the teaching of traditional music.
TradLife founder Emerald Rae was carrying around a goodly amount of... Read more

Boasting a line-up of familiar favorites, new faces and sounds, and creative collaborations, BCMFest (Boston’s Celtic Music Fest), presented by Passim, will once again warm up the winter in celebration of the Boston area’s abundance of Irish, Scottish,... Read more

The actress and educator McCaela Donovan (no relation) could definitely use a few more hours in her day. For her full-time job, she’s Assistant Director of the School of Theatre at Boston University. Beyond that, she also finds time to serve as Associate... Read more

Legendary Grammy-nominated musician, songwriter, singer and producer Phil Coulter will perform a concert on Oct. 14 at 7:30 p.m. in St. Ignatius Church in Chestnut Hill to benefit the Irish Pastoral Centre-Boston (IPC), a non-profit organization that... Read more

The O’Brien family has plenty to show for its involvement with Irish dancing. Their Newton home’s basement, renovated some years ago to accommodate a small practice studio, is full of photos and trophies that chronicle the success of Conor, 21, Claire, 23... Read more

Greater Boston’s early fall Irish/Celtic concert slate includes a rare duet appearance by Beoga members Niamh Dunne and Sean Og Graham and a concert by new “super group” The Alt, both at The Burren, and a performance by one of Scotland’s most enduring and... Read more

It’s a sad but true fact of life, says Arlington resident Kevin Ferguson: Sometimes it takes a tragic event to spur you to start that project you’ve always been meaning to do.
For generations, Ferguson’s family was a fixture in the “Irish Catskills,” an... Read more